Offshore Wind Power
Huge potential in offshore wind power
OX2 currently holds an extensive offshore wind development portfolio throughout Europe and sold its first offshore wind project in 2022. OX2 looks to take advantage of an increasing willingness to invest, with a new focus on offshore wind power.
Facts about offshore wind power
Offshore wind power will play a key role in increasing the future electricity supply in Europe. The continent currently leads the world in offshore wind power.
The European Commission’s dedicated EU strategy for offshore renewable energy, published on 19 November 2020, anticipated that offshore wind power would increase fivefold to 60 GW of installed capacity by 2030.
The first offshore wind farm was opened in Denmark in 1992. After experiencing a revival in the last few years, offshore wind has enormous potential.
Offshore turbines can be considerably larger than onshore turbines. In OX2’s project Aurora, the turbines are expected to be 370 meters tall, which is higher than the Eiffel tower in Paris. The total capacity of the Aurora wind farm would be 5.5 GW. The largest onshore wind farm in Europe has a total capacity of 600 MW, or 0.6 GW.
Offshore, the winds reach higher speeds, and the wind direction is more consistent. That way, the wind farm requires fewer turbines to provide the same amount of power as onshore farms.
Offshore wind farms can be installed far away from where people live. They can also have a positive impact on the environment by keeping the marine ecosystem safe.
There are two kinds of offshore wind turbines, the bottom-fixed and the floating foundations. Floating turbines is still a new technology.
OX2 and offshore wind power
OX2’s continues to take advantage of new investment opportunities, as reflected by our investments in offshore wind power. Offshore wind makes up about half of our project development portfolio, with key investments located in Sweden and Finland.
The strategy for offshore wind differs to onshore wind. At OX2, we use a partnership model for offshore wind that may include selling parts of the ownerships stake in the projects during the permitting phase to enable continued diversification and expansion of the project development portfolio. For onshore wind, the sale typically takes place when the development phase is completed.
OX2’s first sale in offshore wind was in 2022, when a portfolio of three offshore projects was partially (49%) divested to Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ikea.
Once operational, the projects have the potential to produce up to 38 TWh combined, corresponding to more than 25 percent of the electricity consumed in Sweden in 2021.
- Offshore wind power will play a key role in increasing our project development portfolio and thereby represent a large share of OX2’s future energy mix
- Project development portfolio of about 14.4 GW at Q2 2023
- The largest project in the portfolio is the Aurora wind farm outside of the islands of Gotland and Öland in Sweden with a total capacity of 5.5 GW.
OX2 and offshore wind power in Australia
At the end of 2021, the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Act was passed in Australia, creating a legislative framework for offshore wind in Australia. In June 2022, a new licensing regime came into effect that would regulate the offshore wind industry in Commonwealth waters.
Australia formally declared its first offshore wind zone – Bass Strait off Gippsland – in December 2022. It covers about 15,000 square kilometres off the south coast of Australia. It has the potential to support more than 10GW of year-round wind energy generation.
An additional five regions with world-class offshore wind energy potential have also been identified. These strategic locations include sites with existing energy generation facilities and industrial hubs with strong connections to existing transmission networks, near major export ports.
There are at least 12 offshore wind farms currently in early planning stages (Clean Energy Council. Clean Energy Australia Report 2022).
OX2 continues to explore opportunities within the offshore wind sector in Australia.